US Foods will purchase cash-and-carry chain Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores for $970 million. The addition will add 70 stores to US Foods' portfolio.

Ingram Micro has postponed its Cloud Summit to early 2021, and this month's 2020 Grainger Show has been canceled because of coronavirus concerns. Synnex has announced that it will cancel events this month and next, including the Red, White & You and Spring Varnex shows.

Alibaba is holding in-person events to reach B2B companies and promote its e-commerce platform for US sellers. "We know distributors are new to online sales or hesitant to join, but this also means there is still a massive opportunity for them to digitize and grow their businesses globally," says John Caplan, president of North America B2B.

Drones are primarily viewed in the business world as data-capture devices for industries with broad footprints, but in the future, they will also analyze data and act on it, according to Mike Winn, CEO of DroneDeploy, a startup that believes the technology will be ubiquitous by the end of the decade. "Improvements in drone technology, evolution of AI and improved algorithms will make drones not just more useful, but critical to the supply chains across almost every industry in the primary and secondary economies," Winn said.

Centerline Digital reports that email is the most popular content channel for business-to-business buyers and is the most effective strategy for lead generation and growth. Some 76% of B2B prospects are most inclined to share long-form content and white papers, 59% of senior buyers favor video over text, and 52% prefer content optimized for mobile, tablet and desktop.

We all sometimes struggle to stay motivated at work but take steps if those feelings intensify or linger too long, Jory MacKay writes. Get motivated again by looking at how your work affects others and take meaningful breaks.

Successful leaders are those who enjoy making decisions, helping people meet their goals and trusting their teams to succeed, writes Wally Bock. Before accepting a leadership role, "analyze yourself and what drives you," Bock writes.

Old school distribution is about stocking inventory, taking orders and serving demand. New school distribution is about innovating through customer services and working side-by-side with customers in the real world. The future of distribution is about solving problems in your customer's business -- often before your customer even knows a problem exists. Innovate to Dominate provides breakthrough ideas, lessons from leading distributors who are innovating and inspiration to help you lead your customers into the future and sustain your competitive advantage.

Watch Barry Lawrence. This first-of-its-kind "Sales and Marketing Optimization" research study, with an accompanying Sales and Marketing Framework wall map, provides 30 best practices for improving these critical business processes: market segmentation, value proposition, business development, sales process and sales force stratification. Every distributor should adopt and execute these best practices successfully if the business is to adapt to the new realities in today's economy and still achieve competitive advantage.

Growth is imperative. "Driving Profitable Growth: A Distributor's Playbook to Generate-Manage-Sustain Competitive Advantage" is a first-of-its-kind research study with two wall maps that examines both public and private distribution firms and uncovers a road map that addresses the three dimensions -- generating, managing and sustaining -- of profitable growth. It provides 95 best practices, 40 action steps ready to implement and 60 distributor examples.